Are Juice Cleanses Safe During Pregnancy?

Pregnancy is the perfect time to evaluate your eating habits, making sure that you're eating only the best for you and your growing baby. But it is definitely possible to venture into dangerous territory as far as your pregnancy diet goes. Though pregnancy is not the time to think about losing weight or restricting calories, it's definitely time to start eating healthy. Juicing is one popular way health fanatics, celebrities, athletes, and dieters alike seek to balance their systems and detox — but are juice cleanses safe during pregnancy? The answer isn't as black and white as it might seem.

According to the American Pregnancy Association, dieting is not safe during pregnancy. You shouldn't limit or count your calories in hopes to loose weight, because you and your baby both need those precious nutrients. The same article stated that dieting can lead to insufficient amounts of important nutrients like iron, folic acid, fiber, and other vitamins. So although a juice cleanse (or fast) where you drink only juice with the hopes of detoxing or losing weight, isn't recommending for pregnancy, that may not mean you have to give up your wheatgrass apple smoothie for good.

According to The Bump, doing your juicing at home, to avoid unpasteurized and bacteria ridden juices is the safest route. Normally, unpasteurized juices from juice bars are safe for consumption, but when you're pregnant, you're especially susceptible to bacteria entering both your and the baby's systems, the article said.

Pasteurization, the process that helps kill bacteria before ingredients are used, isn't always practiced by farmer's markets, juice bars, or elsewhere. So it's best to only make your juice where you know exactly how the veggies and fruits were washed — like in your own kitchen. If you're buying pre-made juices from the grocery store, the Food and Drug Administration noted that you should make sure to buy one that are already pasteurized.

Though it can feel like pregnancy is one long laundry list of rules to follow, simply taking the proper precautions can keep you safe and let you enjoy life's little pleasures, like juice, even when you're pregnant.